McLaren Wants To Let People Own A Tiny Piece Of The Company

In late 2014, Ferrari made the bold decision to go public as a company. This means that Ferrari did an Initial Public Offering (IPO), the first time when a private company offers its stock to the public. This move was so financially successful that other luxury automakers like Aston Martin have thought about making the same move. Now McLaren is considering taking the company public. In a story published by The Times and cited by Autocar, McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt talked about why an IPO would be such a good idea.

“The more successful we become, the more attractive we become to people who want to invest” Flewitt said. Since Ferrari went public, its share value has increased by 62 percent, showing that this strategy can work. Like Ferrari, McLaren has been on a roll of late, doubling its sales figures in 2016. McLaren sold 3286 cars in 2016, and will likely beat that number this year. The largest market for McLaren was North America, which accounted for about one third of sales. Europe was the second largest market with 996 cars sold. McLaren is a highly innovative company that is Tesla-esque in its global appeal. Gong public would almost certainly be a good move for the British carmaker.

It is hard for us to predict whether McLaren would make a good investment, especially after Brexit (we are car enthusiasts not stock brokers after all). However, if McLaren's IPO is anything like Ferrari's, it would be smart to get in with an investment as soon as possible.